Consumers interested in acquiring services must first identify the service provider who is capable of providing the required services. At present, this usually means perusing a telephone directory, which can become frustrating and time-consuming if the service providers telephoned are not immediately available. A phone book (whether a bound paper book or an electronic directory) is also not very effective if the service provider""s business category is not known.
Over the years, a number of systems have been developed that partially address this problem. In particular, these include systems that attempt to match potential customers with potential service providers. They range from free bulletin-board-style Internet web sites to sophisticated Internet-based consulting services.
Once a service provider has been identified and has agreed to provide the requested services to the user, the service provider may wish to charge the user for providing the requested services. In many cases, the service provider will charge the user based upon the time it takes to provide the requested services.
Currently, providers of services use rigid methods to bill their time for services rendered to clients. Lawyers and consultants, for instance, set a fixed hourly rate. After tallying the amount of time worked, they bill their clients according to this preestablished rate. This process offers little flexibility to alter the fixed hourly rate, and the service provider must painstakingly tally the time.
Some devices exist to automate the billing of time for services rendered. 1-900 telephone numbers, for instance, automatically calculate the time that services are rendered through the telephone and bill the customer accordingly.
None of these present-day devices, however, provides a method by which the service provider""s billing rate can be maximized in real time. 1-900 numbers have a fixed rate that is advertised to the customer. The service provider bills at this rate and at this rate onlyxe2x80x94even if there are 50 customers vying to speak to the same provider at once.
This rigidity is unfortunate, since a service provider""s time is more valuable at some moments than at others. For example, when 50 customers all would like to speak to the same service provider at a given moment, that service provider""s time is clearly more valuable than his or her rate indicates, since demand for that time at the given rate far outweighs the supply. Additionally, some customers may value their time more than others and be willing to pay more to not have to wait to speak with the service provider. Current systems provide no way for either the service provider or the customer to maximize the value of their time.
A system and method for allowing a first user to advance in a queue having at least a second user are described. The first user and the second user each have separate positions in the queue. The system includes a first logic unit to receive a bid from the first user. A second logic unit compares the bid with a price being offered by the second user. If the bid is higher than the price, a third logic unit advances the first user to a subsequent position in the queue ahead of the position associated with the second user. From the detailed description that follows, it will be clear that a xe2x80x9cfirst userxe2x80x9d and a xe2x80x9csecond userxe2x80x9d may be part of a plurality of more than two users waiting in a queue.
The systems and methods described herein may be incorporated into a xe2x80x9cservice marketplacexe2x80x9d system that matches users with potential information or service providers and establishes a real-time communications connection between the user and a selected information provider such that the user and the information provider may communicate with each other in real-time.